How accessible is my visualization? Evaluating visualization accessibility with Chartability
Published at
EuroVis
| Rome, Italy
2022
Abstract
Novices and experts have struggled to evaluate the accessibility of data
visualizations because there are no common shared guidelines across
environments, platforms, and contexts in which data visualizations are authored.
Between non-specific standards bodies like WCAG, emerging research, and
guidelines from specific communities of practice, it is hard to organize
knowledge on how to evaluate accessible data visualizations. We present
Chartability, a set of heuristics synthesized from these various sources which
enables designers, developers, researchers, and auditors to evaluate data-driven
visualizations and interfaces for visual, motor, vestibular, neurological, and
cognitive accessibility. In this paper, we outline our process of making a set
of heuristics and accessibility principles for Chartability and highlight key
features in the auditing process. Working with participants on real projects, we
found that data practitioners with a novice level of accessibility skills were
more confident and found auditing to be easier after using Chartability. Expert
accessibility practitioners were eager to integrate Chartability into their own
work. Reflecting on Chartability’s development and the preliminary user
evaluation, we discuss tradeoffs of open projects, working with high-risk
evaluations like auditing projects in the wild, and challenge future research
projects at the intersection of visualization and accessibility to consider the
broad intersections of disabilities.